April Showers........they'll hopefully really bring May flowers :).

Well, April just started it seems and now it's almost done.  Craziness.  We've had a lovely April, hope you have as well.  I'm sorry it's been a couple weeks since I posted, and almost a month since I posted pics.  Not sure how that happened.  At any rate, I'm finally posting now. 

Caden is changing and changing.  He is starting to say more and more 'words.'  By that I mean, most may not understand much of what he's saying/doing, but we do :).  He has certain things he says for certain things, and it's great.  It seems like in the last week it's really started happening more.  He says "crackers" clear as day (probably because that's all he'd eat if he'd have it his way).  He calls all buses and trucks "cars."  And when I tell them they are trucks, he says "No, cars."  It works.  He says tractor.  He says keys.  Everything he says has the "k" sound with it.  It's cute.  He has his molars on top and bottom in back, and he can chew up lots more and much better.  One of these days his nervous nelly mommy will quit cutting up his food into teeny tiny bits.

We have read the same book every night before bed and naps for the last month.  I mean every time.  And not just the same book, the same page.  Yep, 1 page in 1 book is what CW insists on every time.  It's a hoot.  It's a page that shows different kinds of trucks/semis, and we have to point at each one and I say what it is.  Sometimes he lives on the edge and decides he needs to point at each one and I say what they are.  And if he's REALLY  feeling like living on the edge, he will point at each and 'say' what each one is.  (Can you sense I'm making fun of my Type A little man :)).

He loves a dance party.  He's pretty specific about those too.  Sometimes I'm supposed to clap and Jared dances to the music, sometimes we both are supposed to clap, and sometimes we are both to dance/do both.  It's pretty strict.  And it has to be the right music.  Sometimes CW leaves the room for a minute, but if you do something dumb like quit your job for the dance party (i.e. quit dancing), Caden will make sure and get you back on track when he gets back in the room.  Ah, how I love him.  He's too much sometimes.

We are anxious for nice weather, complete with trips to the zoo and parks.

Looks major league-like to me, don't you think?  Look at that form!  Ha.

Cuddling with Grandpa.  I've never seen him stay so still for so long.

Went to visit Great Grandpa D to see his new carpet :).

CW making sure the carpet is nice.

We took advantage of the 1 warm day...broke out the shorts.  (That's our diagnosed
'morbidly obses' dog walking with him).  He is currently 23.5 pounds
and should be around 15.  Eeks. Better do more CW chasing.

Leslie came to visit Allie all the way from Texas, and they hung out with us some :)

Cute little butters in his shorts.

The dogs get lots of love.  They get hugs before every nap and bedtime.
Not sure if the feelings are mutual, but it's pretty cute :).

So, I was putting makeup on and happy that Caden was quietly watching
TV.  Ha.  I came around the corner to find him like this.  He'd opened the
dishwasher, climbed on the lid to get a bowl of soggy Rice Krispies off
the counter from earlier, grabbed a spoon from the dishwasher, and was
having a snack when I found him.  It was 2 minutes alone, seriously.  Oh, Caden!

We went to Katina's 5th birthday party.  Not sure how she's 5!!  Seems
like she was just CW's age.  Caden had a blast.  Can you see his face?
He's laughing SO hard.  What a stud!

When in doubt, grab your clothes hamper and crawl in it to chillax.  Makes sense.

Here he's going "Ymmmm!"  It's hillarious.

Getting REALLY serious about coloring Easter cards to be sent out.

It got intense.  And then he got over it.  And Mommy had
15 more cards she wanted him to color.  Oh well.

We walked to Target and bought CW a Cars Movie set of cars.
All in an effort to make our morbidly obese dog less that way.

Caden getting his Easter basket when he got up Saturday morning (since
Sunday was so busy).  Momma bunny was good to him.  Coloring book,
stickers, sunglasses, Toy Story 3, new Veggie Tales, new PJ's, and
a little Easter chick that 'tweeted,' and a Cars Booboo.
 He loved it.  I went overboard, I know.

In his favorite place, the back yard.

This was the funniest & cutest thing I've seen.  He rode with Jared
while he mowed.  Jared told him he had to wear earplugs, and his
sunglasses to protect his eyes.  And he did.  And he was serious. 

Makes my heart melt.



Caden's first worm!!  We won't go into details about how Uncle B had
actually chopped it in half with a shovel already, and how Caden
threw it to it's death on the brick patio right after this pic.  Ha.



There you ahve it.  That's our April in a nutshell.  Here's to May flowers!!  I'll post Easter pics soon. 

Makes it all worth it.

Caden was outside playing yesterday every minute that he was awake, I do believe.  One of the many things I love about our yard is that he can just walk down 1 step out of our kitchen and go running and playing so easily!!  And, it's fenced in so he can't escape.  Well anyway, I stepped inside the kitchen yesterday to get him a refill on his sippy (or something like that.....I lose track :)), and Caden was running in the yard.  I was keeping an eye on him, and he ran up the hill to the back of the yard where we have 2 big trees he likes to "hide" between.  I saw him playing back there, and suddenly he bent down & picked something up.  He came running so fast, down the hill, across the patio, and up the step into the kitchen.

"I know," I told him, "Mommy's getting your sippy!"  Then I realized he was handing me something.  I looked down, and in his precious little hand was a little white flower that must've blown into our yard from the neighbors'.  It was a tiny little thing, but he was smiling so big and was so proud.  And this Mommy might have got a little teary-eyed :).  It was absolutely so sweet!!  Then he gave me a hug and ran back outside. 

That little sweetie pie had found that flower on the ground, and instantly got excited and brought it right to me, so proud.  He knew I'd love it :).  And I did.  And it might be completely wilted and not such a "pretty flower" anymore today, but I'm keeping it and treasuring it. 

Makes it all worth it, that's for sure :).

LOVE THAT BOY!!! 

P.S. CW, keep up the flowers for the ladies, thing, it'll score some big points for you down the road :).  Haha.  Love, Mom

Mr. Particular

Caden is Mr. Particular indeed.  He knows how he wants things and makes sure whoever he's with "gets the memo," too.  When we go to sit down outside, he'll pat the ground/chair/stairs, whatever, to show me where he wants to sit.  It's pretty cute, always right next to him :). 

And then, there's the binks.  Oh, the binks....(side note....not sure how this kid will ever lose his addiciton to the binks, but anyhoo....) we are very particular about the binks.  He's been funny about the binks since he was really little.  We have video of him crawling around, and every time he sees a binkie, he spits the one in his mouth out for the next one he sees.  We used to scatter them in a little trail as he crawled along, and it made for some cheap entertainment, watching him go after one bink at a time.  Well anyway, these days he knows his binks are (for the most part) only in his crib.  We are trying to have him have the binkies less and less, although we are not fighting it as hard as we should at this point probably.  So every so often during the day he decides that he really needs a binkie, and runs to his bedroom door, waits for someone to open the door, and runs in and gets a binkie out of his crib.  In the morning, when I go in to get him, he is always sitting there with all the binks we left in the crib with him.  Then he knows I'll only let 1 come out with him, to have while we watch a show, so he'll sit there and stare at them, trying to decide which one he wants.  I didn't know binks could be so different.  It's seriously like he's taste-testing them all.  And it's the same story at night.....when we go in to do his bedtime, he stands by his crib and takes each bink out, one at a time, "taste-tests" them, and puts each back 'til he finds the right one.  It cracks me up.  Apparently they each have a secret flavor I'm unaware of.  Haha.

And then, there's bedtime.  He is so sweet, and of course, so particular about saying "Night-night" to anyone and everyone who is here.  This includes the dogs.  Both dogs.  Individually getting "Night night" greetings from Caden.  When you tell him it's time to go to bed, he'll get his blankie, binkie, and sippy, and start waving.  Just recently, he's very specific about whom he's waving too, and it cracks us up.  The other night Jared was holding Barley as Caden was saying "goodnight" to Jared.  Jared kept responding to Caden saying "Night" back to him, and Caden started shaking his head "No." We realized it was because he was saying "Night" to Barley after Jared, and when Jared kept responding to him, Caden was trying to say "No you goofballs I already said goodnight to Dad, I'm saying goodnight to Barley now!!"  Anyway, it was funny.  Once we figured that out he said "Yes" and smiled and moved on to saying "Night" to Milo, who we had to hunt down in the spare bedroom. 

Caden couldn't be more thrilled about the weather!  He's a ball of fire the second his little velveeta block feet hit the back steps onto the patio, and doesn't stop laughing/running/smiling until his mean, awful parents make him come inside and eat or go to bed, or something crazy like that.  Ha. 

I think we will definitely get out money's worth out of the good 'ol sunshine this year, and I think winter will be quite a traumatic transition for this sweet baby boy!

Lovely times in lovely weather.

Used a stool to help Mommy load the dishwasher....which translated to taking sippies in and out of dishwasher.

Allie looked at this picture and said, "Oh my.....it's Emily :)"

Smiley McSmiley pants!

Even though his climber is all put together, he has to "fix" it lots like daddy did when putting it together.

Hey, beautiful eyes, what's up??

Shoveling dirt with Grandpa.  (Notice his mouth 1/2 open, concentrating SO hard!)

Hard work!!

Trying to catch a fish with the net in Grandpa's pond....ha!

Checking for a fish.....sorry for the dissapointment, love :).

A proud moment for his Auntie....CW attacking the ketchup!  This was tonight at supper.  After supper he got a cookie, and once the dog stole 1/2 from him, he reached and said "More cookie"....I'm not crazy....everyone else heard it!

Helping grandpa (aka being bossy :)) with the game.  I'm sure CW TOTALLY knows how this game works, haha.